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It’s finally upon us. The biggest, most heralded, most heavily advertised collegiate sporting event of the year: the NCAA basketball tournaments. The single elimination excitement makes March Madness a genuine cultural event.
This year, the men’s tourney seems to be all about bubble teams proving themselves, while the women see one of the strongest fields in years as some lower seeds try to gain attention for themselves by disrupting what was originally expected to be a long road to yet another Connecticut vs. Tennessee showdown.
In both tournaments, the first two rounds of play have been completed, leaving 16 teams in the tournament for each sect. Interestingly, dominant athletic departments, not just individual teams, have marked the 2007-2008 season. Four schools – Stanford, Louisville, North Carolina, and Tennessee – have squads of both genders in the round of 16. A likely, if obvious, pick to win a dual-gender national title seems to be the Tar Heels of North Carolina, who have number-one seeds in both tournaments. The road won’t be easy for either squad, as they face the best additional 15 teams in the country.
George Mason men’s head coach Jim Larranaga said of the March tourney, “Anything is possible.” That motto has been taken to heart, and the results are exemplified by many of the underdog winners so far in both tournaments.
On the men’s side, the first round saw at least one victory from every seed: one through 13. Perhaps most notable was the record set on South Florida’s home court in the Tampa regions. All four games in that region saw lower seed advance, an NCAA men’s tournament record.
With its usual dose of Cinderella stories, the men’s contest has seen a pair of bubble teams: Villanova and Western Kentucky. These two have proved themselves by exceeding expectations and reaching the round of 16, both of them as 12-seeds.
The story of the tournament so far, with all due respect to the Hilltoppers and Villanova, has been the Wildcats of Davidson University. Drawing a 10-seed in a tough bracket, Davidson has powered their way to the Sweet 16 by beating two squads with tournament experience in Gonzaga and Georgetown. Although Davidson, the high-flying offense that averaged over nine three-pointers per game all season long, was expected to put up a fight, few people saw them getting past Gonzaga, much less regional giant Georgetown.
The madness of March has once again shown through and caused many people, including some analysts, to rethink their brackets. In fact, mid-minor conference teams that can shoot the three-pointer, such as Davidson, Belmont, and Western Kentucky, have been more effective against powerhouse conferences than many had originally thought. In fact, a long overdue discussion is finally taking place: The future of one-seeds, two of whom have to play 12-seed Cinderellas in the next round. Facing high-powered offenses like Villanova and Western Kentucky, Kansas and UCLA may have a difficult path to the Elite Eight.
Teams with seasoned coaches, such as Louisville, Memphis and North Carolina, who generally get hot in the round of 16, are gearing up for deep runs. Look for experience to play a factor in the next two rounds on the way to the Final Four.
My upset picks for the Sweet 16: Tennessee, complete with Bruce Pearl’s Orange Jacket bow out to Louisville, and the Hilltoppers will shock offensively-struggling UCLA.
On the women’s side, all of the one and two-seeds remain intact. The rest of the tournament has seen some stunning upsets. Perhaps the most notable are Florida State, an 11-seed, taking down six-seed Ohio State, a perennial powerhouse. Old Dominion earned a trip to the Sweet 16, nipping four-seed Virginia. George Washington University stunned three-seed California; 10-seed Hartford took down Syracuse; and in perhaps the biggest upset of the tournament so far, Pittsburgh stunned 2005 national champions Baylor, another three-seed, 67-59, to nab their first-ever Sweet 16 berth.
Although all eight of the top women’s seeds remain in the contest, look for Duke, who just reached their 11th straight Sweet 16, to be a factor and potentially upset one-seed Tennessee. Stanford and Rutgers, with their tourney experience, could piece together deep runs and cause trouble for top seeds Maryland and Connecticut.
My Sweet 16 picks for women: Duke over Texas A&M, and Oklahoma State will beat two-seed LSU.
